British Land confirms go-ahead with "Cheese grater" development

UK property company British Land confirmed yesterday that it was pressing ahead with plans to build a 224-metre (735 ft) wedge-shaped tower in the City of London.

The 47-storey Leadenhall Building, dubbed "the cheese grater", will have 612,000 square feet (56,850 sq metres) of office space and its construction showed British Land's confidence in London's continuing prowess as a global financial centre, chief executive Stephen Hester said in a statement.

Demolition work on the site is already underway and completion of the new building was scheduled for early 2011, British Land said.

Other skyscrapers in the pipeline include the 288-metre Pinnacle, which was bought in February by a sharia-compliant offshore fund and will be London's tallest building when completed in 2009-10, and the 72-storey London Bridge Tower or "Shard" scheduled for 2010-11.